All about CCNA Certification

The CCNA Certification is really a very useful certification for every IT professional who want to get a high earning job in the field of networking. The ccna exams are a highly reputed as well as accepted certification exam from the Cisco Systems. Furthermore, the Cisco is the most trustworthy names at the networking industry; hence if you have Cisco certification, companies can be assured that their employee is well proficient as well as highly knowledgeable with concepts and fundamentals of networking. Moreover, any candidate who has acquired this certification is known to be a reputed and talented professional who can be trusted and depended upon. This is why the ccna exams have become such a rage!

What is ccna certification!
IT professionals who have CCNA certification are regarded as the most proficient in installing along with managing of the WAN or the LAN along with Switched Network Services. Mostly, such professionals make use of the Cisco equipment that is compatible in maintaining and installing infrastructure which they have been working on for their respective companies. If a candidate wants to get this certificate, then he or she must pass the ccna exams. This is what ccna certification is.

Cost of CCNA Certification
The CCNA certification cost is only 250 USD. Moreover, the candidates from the overseas can easily change this amount into the currency of their own country in determining the exact amount that has to be spent by them for the exam registration. If you wish to get 2 separate examinations for CCNA, then you need only in paying 125 USD for each test. The CCNP Composite cost is 300 USD as well. What is best about the ccna exams are that there isn’t any discrimination in regard to pricing and the cost of ccna exam all over the globe is simply the same.

If you wish in determining the complete cost of ccna exam certification, then you should be aware that the cost of ccna exam study guide or study book materials will not be inclusive in the fees that you have to pay. Furthermore, every candidate must also take their own expenses in traveling up to the exam center in order to attempt for ccna exams. The various study guides offer real scenarios which will not only prepare you for this exam, but also offer you a good foundation to be a true Cisco professional.

One thing every candidate should remember is that, all the CCNA professionals must renew their certification after every 3 years. The CCNA certification’s cost will really differ in accordance to the ccna exam study guide that you may use for ccna exams or also if you take the training. To sum it up, the CCNA is regarded as the most brilliant certification given by the Cisco. So if you are looking for a great opportunity in your career, getting the Cisco certification is the ultimate thing you can do and this is the perfect way in succeeding.

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Browsers pose the greatest threat to enterprise, Microsoft reports

While the company is committed to Internet Explorer, it is experimenting with an architecture to replace the browser called Embassies

Microsoft's latest security report has found that Web-based attacks pose the greatest threat to companies, giving credence to efforts to develop browser alternatives to accessing the Internet.

Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report, released Wednesday, is based on data collected in the last half of 2012 from a billion Windows computers in more than 100 countries. The data was collected through Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool, Microsoft’s real-time endpoint protection products, Hotmail accounts and Bing.

A key finding is that browser attacks became the greatest threat to enterprise networks, surpassing Conficker, a computer worm that infected more computers than any other since 2003's Welchia. At its height, the self-propagating malware that exploits flaws in Windows software infected millions of computers in homes, businesses and government agencies in more than 200 countries.

Today, Conficker has taken a backseat to Web-based attacks through the browser. The use of malicious JavaScript code and HTML inline frames (iFrames) topped the list of exploits. Both have gained in popularity because of the development tools available through the BlackHole exploit kit popular with cybercriminals.

The use of iFrames registered a multi-quarter decline until the fourth quarter of last year, when detection rates nearly doubled, Microsoft said. Hackers who embed iFrames in Web pages use them to link to pages that host malware. Seven in 10 threats affecting enterprises were delivered through malicious websites, according to Microsoft.

Attackers have been increasingly targeting the browser over the last couple of years, so it's no surprise that these types of exploits would eventually take the lead. The trend points to the need to develop a different mechanism for interacting with the Web.

While Microsoft remains committed to Internet Explorer, the company is experimenting with a client-side architecture that would replace the browser with a more secure virtualized environment that isolates Web applications. Called Embassies, the technology would have applications run in low-level, native-code containers that would use Internet addresses for all external communications with other applications.

"Reducing the power and access of the browser to the OS is a great way to minimize the attack possibilities of the hacker," said Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer for Qualys.

On smartphones and tablets, the browser has become less important because of native apps that connect directly to the Internet, thereby offering a smaller attack surface.

On the PC, companies can bolster browser security by always using the latest version and minimizing the use of plugins, particularly Java and Adobe Reader. In addition, filtering Web browsing through a third-party service that track malicious URLs is also recommended, along with user education about Web threats.

The second most popular exploit was PDF and Word documents, followed by Java and the Windows operating system, respectively.

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Microsoft’s Enterprise Windows 8: A true business OS, for once

Business users will find actual IT-oriented features, rather than the consumer OS adorned with extras.

Microsoft recently introduced a trio of consumer Windows 8 SKUs, two for desktop and the ARM version. Lost in the hoopla was Windows 8 Enterprise edition, which wasn't outlined in great detail.

Well, Microsoft has started to provide information on it, and it sounds like, for once, it will be a true business OS and not just the consumer product with a few extras thrown in.

Windows 8 Enterprise will contain all of the features of Windows 8 Pro plus a number of exclusive features for business users. First among them is the ability to create Windows To Go portable USB installations, which will help with the whole Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement at work lately. The USB drive will create a bootable external USB stick to give access to the corporate environment without compromising security.

Another notable feature is DirectAccess, which allows for remote access to corporate networks without requiring a VPN connection while allowing administrators to keep remote users’ PCs in compliance with policies and software.

BranchCache allows remote users to cache files and other content from central servers on their local PCs. Windows Server 2012 will come with a number of improvements over Server 2008, which first introduced this concept.

AppLocker has been updated to restrict the files and apps that users or groups are allowed to run. Enhancements in Microsoft RemoteFX and Windows Server 2012 provide an improved VDI experience, and Windows 8 App Deployment will support side-load internal, Windows 8 Metro style apps.

To make full use of these features, Microsoft is modifying the Software Assurance license to support Windows To Go users, and for power users, Companion Device licenses will allow employees to access corporate environments through either Windows To Go or VDI using up to four personally-owned systems. This will cost extra from regular licenses.

Windows 8 Enterprise will also include MDOP, which helps manage clients, including swapping between Windows 7 and 8, and Windows Intune will allow for remote PC management that takes advantage of all of the new features in Windows 8.

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Google tells Microsoft to shut down its YouTube app for Windows Phone

App allegedly strips advertisements, lets users download videosGoogle on Wednesday demanded that Microsoft yank its YouTube app for Windows Phone from the market and disable any downloaded copies of the app, according to Wired.com, which received a copy of Google’s cease and desist letter.

Microsoft has until May 22 to comply, according to the story by Wired’s Mat Honan.

The Microsoft-written YouTube app violates YouTube’s service terms in two ways: it strips out the ads in the videos and lets users download content from the video site. Users can download the Microsoft app from the Windows Phone App Store.

UPDATE 1: But there are at least three other Windows Phone apps, available on Microsoft’s online app store, that also appear to violate one or the other of these restrictions. All three let users download videos to their phones. A paid version of one of them lets the user block advertisements.

Here’s the list:

Tube Pro, free, by Fast Code; the WindowsPhone Store listing offers an email address for support and questions. “If you want to remove adverts, Please buy the paid version.”

YouTube Downloader, free, by AnKo Software, which seems to be a Russian developer; on Twitter @AnKo_software

YouTube Downloader, $2.49, by AutoExpert Net. No vendor contact information available, but it was the only vendor that posted a disclaimer about downloading content: “AutoExpert Net does NOT in any way endorse and is NOT responsible for downloading copyrighted material from YouTube. This application should only be used for non-copyrighted material and/or for educational purposes. All the rights of the videos/audios are the property of their respective owners. By using this application you agree to abide by local and national copyright laws.”

“Network World” emailed AutoExpert Net. and tweeted AnKo Software for comment.

[MORE MICROSOFT: Windows 8 isn't New Coke, says top Microsoft exec; it's Diet Coke]

“These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service,” according to Google’s letter. “We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.”

“Just today, during his presentation at the Google I/O keynote, Google CEO Larry Page decried Microsoft for “milking off” of Google’s innovations,” Honan writes.

The Wired story includes the full text of the letter, dated May 15. It was sent to Todd Brix, Microsoft general manager, Windows Phone apps and store. It was signed by Francisco Vareta, director, global platform partnership, for Youtube.

Wired contacted both Google and Microsoft for comment. As of this posting, Wired apparently has received none.

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Microsoft Hyper-V starts turning more heads

Microsoft virtualization technology still has uphill battle vs. VMware, but third-party support making Hyper-V more alluring to customers

About three years ago Embotics jumped into developing support in its private cloud management platform for Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor, hopeful that the VMware virtualization challenger would take off. When that takeoff initially stalled, Embotics curtailed its Hyper-V work to focus resources elsewhere.

But over the past six to eight months, Embotics saw a big increase in customer interest for Hyper-V -- so it resurrected its efforts and earlier this month officially rolled out support for the Microsoft platform.

"It's finally good enough," says CEO Jay Litkey of Hyper-V. "It's finally ready."

Embotics isn't alone in expanding support for Hyper-V. OpenStack, the open source cloud computing platform, did likewise: Hyper-V was originally supported in the project, but was later dropped until the most recent Grizzly release of the code, which now supports both Hyper-V and VMware ESX hypervisor.

Around the time of this month's Microsoft Management Summit a host of companies rolled out support for Microsoft's suite of management tools, with more than a handful of them extending their platforms to support Hyper-V. Other announcements included:

Amazon Web Services announcing its Storage Gateway now runs in Microsoft Hyper-V virtualized environments, in addition to VMware ESXi architectures. The gateway is a software appliance that acts to synchronize data between customers' on-premises data and Amazon's cloud (Simple Storage Service or S3 specifically) for file backup, disaster recovery or sharing.
Cisco now supporting Windows Server 2012, which includes Hyper-V, and Windows Systems Center VM Manager in its Unified Computing System (UCS), including the Microsoft management tools being certified to work on Nexus 1000V Series hardware, as well as on Cisco/NetApp partnership gear named FlexPod; and in Cisco/EMC partnership packages called VSPEX.

Hitachi Data Systems announcing its unified computing platform (UCP) now supports Windows Server 2012 and Windows Systems Center.
Virtual machine backup specialist Veeam announcing broader support for Hyper-V in the Virtual Lab v7 release of its Veeam Backup and Replication software, which allows users to reboot VMs directly from compressed or deduplicated backup files. Vision Solutions, another provider of disaster recovery and high availability services, expanded its support to include not only Hyper-V, but now Windows Azure, Microsoft's infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud platform.

So what does it all mean? Mark Bowker, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, says it's common for providers to make news at shows like the Management Summit but that "the frequency and sheer quantity of them points to something bigger. Microsoft has really come around in the last year or so." The release of Windows Server 2012 and Windows Systems Center, plus improvements to the Hyper-V virtualization platform have all caused IT professionals to take a closer look at the Microsoft's virtualization offering, he says.

It is still a bifurcated market though, with VMware's ESX hypervisor holding a dominant position. But Hyper-V is catching up and is growing market share, according to Bowker and Litkey. "In the majority of use cases, both solutions are very solid," Bowker says. "VMware still has a very significant footprint, but Microsoft has the potential to disrupt."

Microsoft makes the case that its management tools, like Windows Server and Systems Center, are part of a broader "Cloud OS" strategy that includes the company's Azure public cloud, as well as offerings from cloud service providers using the Microsoft platform. "Microsoft is the only company that offers customers the flexibility of a consistent hybrid cloud platform that spans customer datacenters, hosted service provider datacenters and the Microsoft public cloud," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in an email. "Customers can use the same core technologies - including virtualization, systems management, identity, development tools and database - across all three clouds."
Where are the cloud providers?

But Bowker says Microsoft has not done as good of a job as VMware, OnApp and OpenStack supporters at getting third-party providers to use its cloud management technology as the basis for their offerings. Microsoft points to providers like OVH and Hitachi Systems as being among cloud service providers using Cloud OS, but there's a decided lack of brand-name providers using it. "Microsoft's Cloud OS strategy is triangular, but it really focuses on the on-premises and Azure services," Bowker says. VMware, meanwhile, has more than 100 providers using vCloud Director as the basis for their clouds, including providers it lists on its website such as Bluelock, CSC, Dell, Internap, NaviSite and Savvis.

Embotics CEO Litkey says Hyper-V as a virtualization platform still has a ways to go to catch market-leading VMware ESX. While Hyper-V improved in the last year and is a stable, solid platform, ESX outdoes it in areas such as resource contention -- distributed resource scheduling (DRS) and vMotion, for example -- as well as in automation, scheduling, affinity provisioning, memory sharing and compression.

Still, analyst Bowker says in most cases Hyper-V is a "good enough" alternative to ESX, especially since it's included at no additional cost with a Windows Systems Center license, making Hyper-V more attractively priced than VMware in many circumstances. Combined with powerful new management tools in Systems Center and Windows Server, specifically related to managing large-scale environments, Hyper-V is giving more IT professionals a reason to look at the Microsoft virtualization platform, he says.

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IT's new concern: 'Bring your own cloud'

As personal and professional clouds converge, IT's mission to improve productivity while protecting corporate apps and data is getting tougher.

Bring your own device is so 2012. The next big push in the consumerization of IT is bring your own cloud. And just as when consumer devices poured into the enterprise, many IT organizations have already responded with a list of do's and don'ts.

The standard approach has been to forbid the use of personal cloud applications for business use, by offering official alternatives -- the "use this, not that" approach -- and to carve out separate cloud storage workspaces for business documents that can be walled off, managed and audited. But personal cloud services are difficult to control, and users are adept at going around IT if the productivity tools in their personal cloud can do the job easier, faster and better. IT wants a bifurcated approach to consumer and professional cloud apps and storage. But users don't work that way anymore.
Getting Around IT

Scott Davis, CTO of end-user computing at VMware, originally began using a personal cloud app for business after the IT organization failed to offer a viable solution that met his needs. Davis, who has speaking engagements all over the world and needs to share large multimedia presentation files, asked for an exception to VMware's email attachment size quota. IT responded first by suggesting that he pare down the content and then followed up by suggesting that he buy "a bag full of USB drives" to send presentations by mail.

"That's when I started using Dropbox," he says. "IT has competition. People know what's out there and how to get the job done if IT doesn't help them."

Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg agrees. "IT has to deal not only with bring-your-own devices but bring-your-own services," he says. People will bypass even viable alternatives if they feel that the officially sanctioned professional cloud offering isn't equal to the task -- or if they have a personal cloud app they like better. "If it's digital and it's consumer, it's going to find its way into the office. People will come up with reasons for using it," he says.

At construction management firm Skanska USA Building, employees are mashing up business and personal work on a wide range of personal cloud services, including Dropbox and Evernote. Today, says senior enterprise engineer Jeff Roman, "We don't control that." But IT is actively reviewing its options. "What are we going to limit? What can they access at work and at home?" he asks. Right now that's controlled by use policies that employees must follow as to what types of documents need to stay out of the cloud and what's permissible. For example, financial data "should never touch a cloud service," he says, nor should some documents relating to government projects.

But Skanska is also looking for an officially sanctioned cloud storage option. It is considering Microsoft's SkyDrive Pro, using Citrix's ZenMobile to provide virtual access to files stored on back-end servers, or using niche services such as Autodesk Buzzsaw, which puts construction design tools and documents in the cloud. "We don't need people using all of these different tools," he says, but any solution must be as easy to use as the personal cloud tools employees rely on. Otherwise, users are likely to bypass the official alternative.

"It will be tough to find a one-size-fits-all solution," he says, "but we're working on it. I am hopeful that within the next year we will have one in place, whether that is on-premises or cloud or a hybrid of both."
Blurring the Lines

Organizations need to develop a three-pronged strategy for on-premises, off-premises and cloud, says Jim Guinn, managing director at consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers. "You really need to pay attention to how you secure documents that are in someone else's cloud-based service," he says.

Roman says some documents just don't belong in popular cloud storage services. "I've read the whitepapers on Dropbox and Box. I guess they're secure," he says. But for sensitive documents, he adds, "we don't want to risk it."

Even the issue of who owns business applications and how those applications are licensed is blurring. Evernote for Business, for example, adds a business services layer that includes policy-controlled business notebooks and adds business document libraries to the user's personal Evernote account. Personal and professional documents reside in different repositories but with a unified view.

"We're seeing a transition from two completely separate worlds to a world where there is no line between what's good for personal and what's good for business," says Andrew Sinkov, vice president of marketing at Evernote. And if the user leaves the organization, the account -- sans business documents -- goes with him. "This model is little understood but I think will have a profound impact," says Frank Gillett, an analyst at Forrester Research.

With Office 2013 and SkyDrive, Microsoft has taken a small step toward creating a unified view of the user's personal and professional worlds. It has created synchronized, local versions of the user's SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro (SharePoint document library) storage repositories that exist as separate folders on the user's local desktop. In this way, Office 365 can create and modify documents in the cloud, Office 2013 can read and write to the same files in a local folder, and all changes will be synchronized. "There's a convergence happening from the user's point of view," says Microsoft storyteller Steve Clayton.

This strategy gets around the modal approach to personal and professional workflows -- the two-car-garage model where the user must back out of one account bay and enter another to view and edit documents. Office applications can save to either folder. And if the user copies a document from his personal SkyDrive folder into the SkyDrive Pro folder, that file will be copied back to the cloud, where the policies for that document library will apply.

But only in the cloud. While IT can control which files users can sync with SkyDrive Pro, the cloud service can't control what users do with the locally stored versions of those files. Users either must work with sensitive files in the cloud only or use Office 2013's Information Rights Management feature to control forwarding, copying or printing of specific documents.

"Clearly, there's a lot of change coming where IT has to integrate these [personal cloud services] into the current stack and figure out how it will work together," says Amit Singh, president of the enterprise unit at Google, which in recent years has added enterprise features to consumer-based cloud applications such as Google Docs. With the latter, individual documents can be shared between the controlled, auditable professional account and the user's personal account. But Docs offers no unified document view. On the other hand, Google Plus, Singh says, "was imagined as a semipermeable layer where we add controls for the enterprise from the bottom up."

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Windows 8 isn't New Coke, says top Microsoft exec; it's Diet Coke

Frank X. Shaw defends Windows disclosure strategy, denies aping Apple

Microsoft's head of corporate communications defended his company's Windows information disclosure strategy Tuesday, denying that Microsoft has adopted Apple's "cone of silence" approach to imparting news.

"We know we're not Apple," Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's top communications executive, said in an interview yesterday. "We would love to have control all along the stack, as Apple does. But that's not the business we're in."
Frank X. Shaw
Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communication, in a photo he uses on his Twitter account. (Image: Frank X. Shaw.)

Microsoft's communications strategy, specifically the way it reveals information about Windows to a broad audience -- developers, PC makers, enterprise customers, consumers, the press and analysts -- has been criticized by several of the latter. Windows 8 suffered because of Microsoft's penchant for withholding information, those analysts have contended.

Developers were not provided enough information and tools to craft top-quality apps for the October 2012 launch, OEMs were caught short of touch-enabled devices, and enterprises remain confused about why they should adopt the new OS, the arguments go.

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, has put it most succinctly when he claimed that Microsoft, seeing the success of Apple's habit of divulging nothing until a product announcement, copied the strategy. "Microsoft doesn't make a good Apple," Moorhead said in an interview Monday.

Shaw wasn't having any of that. "It's an easy shorthand for people to use, but it's not accurate," said Shaw of the Apple comparison. "We choose our strategy on the needs that we have. There are times when we will be more conservative and times when we will be more open."

Analysts, some who have requested anonymity for fear of risking their access to Microsoft, have been the most vocal about the relative paucity of information disclosed by the Redmond, Wash. developer, and have compared that strategy to what they saw as a more open communications game plan prior to Windows 7, which shipped in the fall of 2009.

The more secretive approach has been credited to Stephen Sinofsky, who until his ouster last year led the Windows division during development of Windows 7 and the follow-on, Windows 8. Sinofsky was known for keeping things under wraps when he led Office development for several editions, closing out his time on that team with Office 2007.

Shaw acknowledged that Microsoft's approach to doling out information to the media, analysts, developers and OEMs is different today. "Yes, it has changed, because the world we're living in has changed," said Shaw. "If you look at Windows 7 and then look at Windows 8, there were a whole bunch of things with Windows 8 that we wanted to keep more confidential than public. Look at the decision to build Windows 8 on ARM. That was held very closely.

"But I think that's a hard comparison to make," Shaw continued, speaking of the contrast between Windows 8 secrets and pre-Windows 7 openness. "Windows 8 represented a significant platform shift, with touch, Windows available on ARM as well as Intel, a new app model and a new store, and a new set of hardware from us."

In many cases, Microsoft has taken to parceling out information in small bits, a drip-drip-drip strategy that, to outsiders at least, seems to serve little purpose. The best illustration was when the company announced last week that it would release a public preview of Windows 8.1 at its BUILD conference in late June, but said it would provide other information, including pricing, "in a few weeks." Just seven days later, however, Tami Reller, CFO of the Windows division, said that update would be free.

When asked why Microsoft didn't simply give customers both pieces at the same time, Shaw did not directly answer. Instead, he said, "There are many options, and this was the one that we chose. We thought that it was the best way to get the information out."

Microsoft has made other communication missteps recently. Earlier this year, when news broke that it was permanently tying each retail Office 2013 license to the first PC it was installed on, and would not allow users to later move that license to another machine, the company limited the disclosure to the end-user licensing agreement (EULA), which very few people read, then only confirmed the move after several rounds of questions from Computerworld. In March, after a heated reaction from users, Microsoft backtracked from the licensing lock-in.

"There's a big continuum," Shaw said. "At times we are unbelievably transparent, at times we are moderately transparent, and at times we are quiet. What drives this is not a corporate one-size-fits-all strategy, but the demands of the product or service, and the marketplace."

Shaw also took exception to the point many have made that developers were not kept as informed about Windows 8 as in past iterations of the OS, and that what they did get was much later in the development cycle than in the past. That contributed to the Windows Store's app tally and the omission, still, of some major apps, such as one dedicated to Facebook, the theory goes.

"We did tons of work with developers and ISVs to get them ready and to train them," said Shaw, citing the 2011 BUILD conference and follow-on efforts. "The thing that people have to recognize is that until Windows 8 shipped, there were zero targeted devices."

And sans those devices, implied Shaw, it was no surprise that at launch the app store had relatively few apps. "Developers are rational creatures," he said, hinting that until they had hardware they could use to test their apps, they took a wait-and-see stance. "We had realistic expectations of what [the app store] would look like at launch. There was never a 'work-done' moment for us related to the launch."

In the interview, Shaw again blasted press coverage of Windows 8.1. Some stories and opinion pieces described the changes Microsoft might make with the update as a retreat from its previous vision for the OS, and compared Windows 8 to the Coca-Cola debacle of 1985, when within months of the introduction of "New Coke," the beverage giant yanked the reformulated soda.

Shaw's counter-attack drew criticism of its own, with Moorhead saying it was a sign of weakness for a company as large as Microsoft to be thin-skinned.

Shaw disagreed. "These things stick," he said of pieces by The Financial Times and The Economist, which he had earlier singled out as examples of what he called "sensationalism and hyperbole."

"If you don't do anything about it, it can become perceived wisdom," said Shaw, explaining why he wrote the Friday post. "If we don't say anything, then we shouldn't expect other people to read our minds. So we get our voice out there."

Speaking of New Coke, Shaw even had a take on the metaphor.

"If anything, Windows 8 is like Diet Coke," said Shaw. "Diet Coke was a product that mapped an entirely new need expressed by the marketplace, something that tasted just like Coke but had zero calories."

Diet Coke is the world's second-biggest soda, behind only Coke itself and ahead of Pepsi, which it passed in 2010.

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Why Microsoft won't charge for Windows 'Blue' ... this time

Analysts believe Microsoft won't dare charge for this year's update to Windows 8, but one is certain it will for future annual releases

Sometime in the coming weeks, Microsoft will tell Windows 8 users whether they will have to pay for the upgrade code-named "Blue," and if so, how much.

While Microsoft remains tight-lipped on the subject, analysts believe Microsoft won't charge for Blue, but may do so for later updates.

"I don't think that in the current Windows 8 climate they can charge for the first update, as the perception of many users will be that any changes being made or features they are adding will make Windows 8 the way it should have been when they first purchased it," said Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft. "I know I'd be upset if Microsoft asked me to pay for this set of changes."

Brett Waldman, an analyst with IDC, agreed. "I find it hard to believe that Microsoft would try to monetize Windows Blue," he said. "In my mind, it's more like a service pack-plus-feature pack, which have always been included with the purchase of a license."
Last week, Windows division CFO Tami Reller -- who leads the group along with Julie Larson-Green, head of development -- said that the company would share pricing information and other details, including packaging, in the next couple of weeks. Reller spoke to several media outlets and bloggers, including Mary Jo Foley, who blogs on ZDNet, as part of a PR blitz.

But as is Microsoft's habit, Reller declined to share more than that.

Analysts stepped in to fill the gap.

All those contacted by Computerworld believed that Microsoft will not charge for Windows Blue, which Reller and Green referred to simply as "the next update for Windows," but which leaked copies of early builds identified as "Windows 8.1."

"They would be walking a tightrope giving away Blue for free, and be setting a precedent, but with a new technology that's controversial, I think they'll give this one away," said Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner.

Windows Blue is not only the code name for the update, but also an umbrella term for Microsoft's switch to a faster release schedule that is to deliver annual changes to Windows. That's a major transformation for the Redmond, Wash. developer, which has generally produced a new version of Windows every three years.

The new development and release pace means that earlier conventions may not apply. As Waldman noted, Microsoft has historically issued "service packs," largely collections of previously-issued bug fixes, for free. Prior to Windows 2000, the company also shipped what it called "feature packs" that included new functionality, also for free. The latter term has fallen into disuse, with the exception of some special updates, like those that restore Media Player to EU and Korean editions, which must be shipped minus that program as part of past antitrust actions.

But Windows Blue will be neither fish or fowl, neither service pack nor feature pack, at least by nomenclature and probably by content. Microsoft has certainly made it sound like Blue will be a big deal, far more than a series of bug fixes or a few new features.

"It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem," Reller said in a Q&A posted to a company blog. "It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play."

The expected contents of Blue, but more importantly, the switch to a faster release tempo, have given rise to thinking that Microsoft could charge for these annual updates. The company must certainly have considered monetizing Blue.

Windows revenue has been threatened by a long-running and severe slump in PC sales -- IDC estimated computer shipments were down 14% in the first quarter compared to the same period the year before -- caused by a shift in consumer dollars once spent on PCs to tablets and smartphones, a lengthening refresh cycle and lackluster reaction to Windows 8.

A regular update cadence, and income from those updates, would make up for some of the revenue shortfall. It would also allow Microsoft to trumpet those updates to enterprises that pay for Software Assurance (SA), an annuity-like program that provides, among other benefits, rights to free upgrades to future versions of Windows in return for additional payments.

But updates would only be a benefit for SA subscribers, and thus a carrot for new and existing customers, if those same updates came at a cost to everyone else.

Several of the experts compared Windows Blue -- the annual update strategy -- to Apple's also-annual upgrades to OS X. If Apple can charge for those incremental upgrades -- $20 the last two years -- Microsoft should be able to charge for Blue and its successors, they reasoned.

But customers will get a free pass this time, the analysts said, citing several reasons.

Daryl Ullman, co-founder and managing director of the Emerset Consulting Group, which specializes in helping companies negotiate software licensing deals, knocked down the idea of Microsoft charging for Blue in order to pitch it as a benefit to companies that pay for SA on Windows.

"Under SA, companies would be eligible for Blue, just like any other upgrade," said Ullman. "But there's no value in that to them now. Of our clients with SA, none of them has done anything with Windows 8. And even if they had, they're not going to touch the desktop just months after [migrating to Windows 8]. Organizations just do not like to touch the desktop. Once every three to five years is enough, because it's a major happening."

Others echoed Cherry, noting that Microsoft would likely get an earful if it charged for Blue. "I do agree that any form of monetization is likely to see some pushback in the industry," said Al Gillen of IDC.

But while optimistic that Microsoft will skip the charge this time, Cherry was also sure that Microsoft would eventually put a price on the annual updates.

"First, and strategically, I think Microsoft would like to charge for such updates in the future," Cherry said. "However, before they could do so, I also think they have to determine several things, including: How much are users willing to pay for an annual update; how much value, in other words new features, they can put in each update; and finally, can they prove that they can roll out updates with value in a consistent and predictable cadence."

Supporting his take that Microsoft will charge for updates -- if not for 2013's Blue -- Cherry pointed out that neither Reller and Larson-Green had a name for the impending update, which will reach customers as a public preview in late June during the BUILD developers conference.

That omission could be telling, Cherry said. "I'm not sure they'll expose a number for the update, but will just call it 'the Windows 8 update,'" he said. "There would still be a number [assigned to the update] that could be checked programmatically for support, but I don't think they want to get into the whole problem of the public name."

If that is Microsoft's strategy, it would have an impact on the free versus paid question for updates. "If [Blue] works, then we might not see another big version," Cherry said. "Suppose this release, let's call it 8.1, is a success. Next year, 8.2 is a success. In my mind that means we may never see a big release, call it Windows 9, but rather, just annual updates that everybody buys and everybody installs."

With years between something called "Windows 8" and "Windows 9" -- or nothing called the latter -- Microsoft would be much more likely to charge for the annual updates as a way to replace the revenue lost by ditching the major upgrades of the past, Cherry argued.

Cherry was the only analyst willing to put a possible price tag on the updates. "My expectation would be that when Microsoft begins charging, the price for an annual update would be somewhere between $24.99 and $49.99," he said.

That range straddles the Windows 8 Pro $39.99 upgrade price Microsoft offered through Jan. 31, 2013, and the amount Apple charged for the 2009 OS X upgrade to Snow Leopard in 2009. But it's above the fees for upgrades to Lion and Mountain Lion in 2011 and 2012.

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IT pros leave money on the table, job site finds

If IT job candidates were to negotiate higher salaries, they could expect a bump in the 5% range, according to jobs site Dice.com

When a job offer arrives, a majority of tech pros accept it without asking for more pay, according to Dice.com. If candidates were to negotiate higher salaries, they could expect a bump in the neighborhood of 5%, the IT careers specialist estimates.

A majority of hiring managers and recruiters surveyed by Dice.com said that more than half of tech pros accept the first offer without negotiating starting salaries or hourly rates. The national average salary for tech pros is currently $85,619, which means not haggling can cost a person $4,300, on average, per year. When you factor in bonuses and performance pay, which are typically based on a percentage of salaries, the tally is even higher.

Fear is likely the reason IT pros don’t take the opportunity to ask for more money, according to Tom Silver, senior vice president at Dice.com.

“When fear creeps into a negotiation or stops it all together, it’s good to remember negotiation is simply a discussion aimed at reaching an agreement. And, both sides want an agreement,” Silver points out.

“Straight-talk meetings are a standard in tech departments, there’s no reason tech professionals can’t do that with job offers. The company has tapped the talent, but the employer is not tapped out – ask for more.”

The odds of getting more money are in the job candidates’ favor. Dice.com asked 838 hiring managers and how frequently a company will raise an offer when a candidate doesn’t accept the initial salary or hourly rate that’s offered. Six percent said very frequently; 27% said frequently; and 49% said occasionally. The remainder said rarely (11%), very rarely (6%) or never (1%).

As of last month, Dice.com counts 83,610 available tech jobs. The top 10 metro areas for tech hiring, based on the number of job postings, are: New York (8,511 jobs), D.C./Baltimore (7,073), Silicon Valley (5,240), Chicago (3,784), Los Angeles (3,301), Boston (3,190), Atlanta (3,120), Dallas (3,030), Philadelphia (2,495), and Seattle (2,386).

Despite reservations about the overall economy, the IT jobs market remains healthy and IT executives are generally optimistic about hiring.

In a survey by Robert Half Technology, 14% of CIOs said they planned to expand their IT departments in the second quarter of 2013. In addition, 70% said it's challenging to find skilled professionals today. The skill sets in greatest demand are network administration, cited by 51% of CIOs, and database management, also cited by 51% of CIOs.

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Payment card processors hacked in $45 million fraud

U.S. federal prosecutors indicted eight people accused of running a vast carding scheme

A vast debit card fraud scheme that allegedly netted US$45 million has been linked to the hacking of credit card processors in the U.S. and India.

Federal prosecutors in New York indicted eight men on Thursday whom they accuse of a scheme centered on raising the limit on prepaid debit cards and then withdrawing the cash from ATMs.

"In such operations, hackers manipulate account balances and in some cases security protocols to effectively eliminate any withdrawal limits on individual accounts," the indictment reads.

"As a result, even a few compromised bank account numbers can result in tremendous financial loss to the victim financial institution," it said.

Payment card processors are typically expected to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), a code of best practices created by the card industry designed to prevent hackers from obtaining card details.

In one example, the hackers raised the limit on 12 accounts at the Bank of Muscat, based in Oman. The account details were obtained through a U.S. credit card processor, which handles Visa and MasterCard prepaid debit cards. It was not identified in the indictment.

The account numbers were distributed to people in 24 countries, who encoded the account details onto dummy payment cards that could then be used in ATMs. Around Feb. 19, the Bank of Muscat lost $40 million in less than 24 hours as the people made withdrawals.

A single card's details was used around New York City for an astounding 2,904 withdrawals, amounting to $2.4 million, according to the indictment. The same number was used in other withdrawals worldwide for another $6.5 million.

The Indian credit card processor, which was also not identified, held the details for prepaid Visa and MasterCard debit accounts with the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah PSC in the United Arab Emirates.

The limits for five of those accounts were increased, and the card details send to people in 20 countries. More than 4,500 ATM withdrawals were made, causing $5 million in losses, the indictment said.

The defendants are charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York with conspiracy to commit access device fraud, money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering.

Those arrested are Jael Mejia Collado, Joan Luis Minier Lara, Evan Jose Pena, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje and Chung Yu-Holguin.

An eighth defendant, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, is believed to have been murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27.

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Windows 8 Update: Gates: Windows 8 is about the iPad

Also, a Windows 8 tablet for less than $400 is a natural for BYOD

Windows 8 is Microsoft's best effort to catch up with Apple and grab tablet sales away from the iPad by including things iPads just don't have, according to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

These things include keyboards and Microsoft Office, Gates says in an interview with CNBC. "With Windows 8 Microsoft is trying to gain share in what has been dominated by the iPad-type device," Gates says.

He says Windows 8 was designed to wrap PCs into a tablet form, as exemplified by Microsoft's own Windows 8 hardware Surface PRO and Surface RT.

"So if you have Surface, Surface PRO you've got that portability of the tablet but richness -- in terms of the keyboard, Microsoft Office -- of a PC," he says. "So as you say PCs are a big market. It's going to be harder and harder to distinguish products whether they're tablets or PCs."

Microsoft sees customers are unsatisfied by limitations of pure tablets with touchscreens and no support for Office. "A lot of those users are frustrated," Gates says. "They can't type, they can't create documents, they don't have Office there so we're providing something with the benefits they've seen that have made [tablets] a big category but without giving up what they expect in a PC."
Small, cheap Acer tablet

A product listing for a rumored Acer mini tablet popped up briefly on Amazon.com last week for the surprisingly low price of $379.99 before the item was taken down.

But the specifications listed for the device indicate that it can support a full-blown PC version of Windows 8 on an 8.1-inch tablet.

The low price makes them attractive to consumers and increases the possibility that Windows 8 devices will become a factor in BYOD programs. At the same time these small tablets become more attractive to businesses because they can support all legacy applications that run on Windows 7 including the full version of Microsoft Office.

A separate version of Windows 8 -- Windows RT -- is designed for tablets that are based on ARM processors, but they only run Windows Store applications and a truncated version of Office. Windows RT devices also can't join domains.

The Acer product in question is the W3-810-1600, pictured below in a photo that was posted two weeks ago by the French website minimachines.net but taken down at Acer's request.

The screen resolution is 1280x800 pixels is the low end of minimum requirements for Windows 8 devices set by Microsoft, according to specifications posted by The Verge.

While it's OK to build devices to that spec, it's not without ramifications. The devices can't support snap screens, which is a feature that displays two applications at once -- one small and one large -- and to reverse which one is bigger with a simple touchscreen swipe.

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Intel appoints Krzanich CEO

After a vetting process that lasted a little more than six months, Intel has named Brian Krzanich as its next CEO, succeeding Paul Otellini, who will officially hand over the reins of the chip giant at the company's annual stockholders' meeting on May 16.

Otellini announced Nov. 20 last year that he would retire in May after four decades with the company, of which eight years were as the company's CEO.

Krzanich, who has worked as chief operating officer and senior vice president up until now, beat other internal candidates being considered for the post, according to industry insiders. They included Stacy Smith, Intel's CFO and senior vice president and Renee James, senior vice president and general manager of software and services.

The board of directors also elected James, 48, to be president of Intel. She will also assume her new role on May 16.

All three were promoted to senior vice president on Nov. 20, the same day Otellini's retirement was announced.

"After a thorough and deliberate selection process, the board of directors is delighted that Krzanich will lead Intel as we define and invent the next generation of technology that will shape the future of computing," said Andy Bryant, chairman of Intel, in a statement Thursday.

"Brian is a strong leader with a passion for technology and deep understanding of the business," Bryant added. "His track record of execution and strategic leadership, combined with his open-minded approach to problem solving has earned him the respect of employees, customers and partners worldwide. He has the right combination of knowledge, depth and experience to lead the company during this period of rapid technology and industry change."

Analysts have said that recent CEOs at Intel were appointed at the time of directional changes for the company, whose core business of laptop and desktop chips has struggled with the slowdown in the PC market. Otellini's successor will have the task of maintaining Intel's top spot in the slumping PC market while trying to dislodge ARM from the fast-growing mobile market.

Intel's processors are used in just a handful of mobile phones and tablets, and 52-year-old Krzanich will have to a get device makers to adopt the company's mobile Atom processors. Intel has poured millions of dollars into smartphone and tablet chip development as it tries to take market share away from ARM, whose processors are used in most tablets and smartphones.

It will also be up to the new CEO to fix a faltering strategy around ultrabooks, which Intel is pushing as a new category of thin-and-light laptops with tablet features. Ultrabooks were introduced to reinvigorate the PC market, but product sales have been slow because of high prices.

Analysts have also pointed out that Intel could focus more on a foundry strategy and expand operations for making chips for third parties. Intel's fabrication plants are considered more advanced compared to those of rivals GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) Intel has historically used its manufacturing assets to make chips for itself, but has recently opened up to the idea of becoming a contract manufacturer. Intel makes chips -- mainly high-margin FPGAs -- on a limited basis for third parties such as Altera, Tabula and Achronix.

Otellini became Intel CEO in 2005 just as the company was struggling to keep up with chip development and losing processor market share to rival Advanced Micro Devices. Otellini put in place the famous "tick-tock" strategy that brought out updates to chips on a yearly basis. That stabilized product releases, development and chip manufacturing cycles. In addition to winning back market share, Otellini played a key role in Apple's shift from the PowerPC processors to x86 chips on Macs in 2005 and 2006.

Otellini also guided Intel through multiple antitrust cases and expanded product offerings through acquisitions of companies such as Wind River and McAfee. Intel also acquired networking firm Fulcrum, and assets from Qlogic and Cray, with which the company is expanding its data center offerings. Intel also bought wireless assets from Infineon which are expected to be integrated into smartphone and tablet processors.

But for all his achievements, Otellini's reign had its rough times. He failed to quickly adapt to the fast-growing mobile market, but made up by accelerating development of the Atom chips. Otellini was also a champion of ultrabooks, which have so far failed in the market.

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